Interesting post, Mr. Hosler, and one that I agree with for the most part.
However, in my bread machine (and we are talking solely about bread machine
breads, right?), I've never had a successful loaf without salt. The machine
has a timer that is inalterable, at least in my case. Any time I've tried to
go salt-free, the loaf has risen and fallen -- collapsed, really, with no
hope of rebounding within an uninterrupted cycle -- creating an impossibly
dense loaf.
RE: sugar, I should have worded my post differently so it said the loaf
doesn't rise "as quickly" rather than "as much". I did NOT say the loaf will
not rise -- obviously it will. Every breadmaker knows -- or should -- that
starch = sugar. Again, though, omitting sugar from a bread machine recipe can
be a problem sometimes with timed cycles that don't allow a longer rise, if
necessary.
If anyone has found a way around the problem of timed cycles in cases like
these, I'd love to know what it is. I've often wished my machine would let
me skip right to the bake cycle when I want to, but it won't.
-Elizabeth Harbison